July 18, 1999

NASA officials, scientists and others involved in space projects prepare to celebrate 30th anniversary of Apollo 11 lunar landing even as they wonderabout space agency's fate; many worry that United States has lost can-do spirit and will to carry out ambitious, expensive space endeavors; some have mixed feelings about celebrations that dwell on the past; concern is that Apollo should not be held up as model for planning space exploration for long haul; project resulted from cold war confrontation between United States and Soviet Union; it was crash program and too expensive to be sustained once immediate goal was achieved; photo (M)

In-depth profile of acclaimed avant-garde choreographer Merce Cunningham and Merce Cunningham Dance Company; Cunningham's 80th birthday will be celebrated during current Lincoln Center Festival '99; drawing; photos (L)

Profile of scene at PS 41 in Brownsville, Brooklyn, where teacher Shawn Hunt and her third-grade, 8- and 9-year-old students have just completed first two weeks of mandatory summer school, keystone of Chancellor Rudy Crew's program to end practice of of sending students on to the next grade whether they are ready or not; this year, in most ambitious and structured mandatory program since 1980's, 58,000 third, sixth and eighth graders are back in class for extra reading and writing, and to a lesser extent mathematics, to prepare them for promotion test in early August; photos (Article in series Catching Up: Summer at PS 41) (L)

New York Yankees defeat Atlanta Braves, 11-4, Yankee Stadium (M)

Representative Michael P. Forbes, a Republican from Long Island who has often tangled with his party's leaders in the House, announced that he was becoming a Democrat because the Republican Party had been captured by ''extremists.'' Calling that party's leadership ''tone deaf'' to the concerns of average Americans, the three-term Congressman employed the kind of harsh oratory that Democrats once used against him.